Yes but Valas levitated in the first book, that wasn't RAS's book. Considering he didn't have a house insignia and couldn't levitate in any of the following books. The authors were really harping on this, why is it that he could suspend his weight while fighting that mountain giant?

Hi, Ordin. Thanks for the kind words. Glad to hear you're enjoying my stuff.I'm not sure I can give you a satisfactory answer to your question about Valas levitating in Dissolution, and not afterward. You may have to settle for an honest one. When I wrote the first draft of Dissolution, I was working on the basis of the 2nd edition concept of the drow. It was the only info I had to work with. So, as far as I knew, there was no problem with Valas levitating. All dark elves levitate, right?But during the months I was busily typing away, WotC decided that 3rd edition drow would be different. So, suddenly, the drow lore in the first draft of my book was no longer kosher in every respect. Now, in an ideal world, my editors and I, working together, would have fixed all the glitches in the final draft, but in the real world, sometimes stuff gets past you.If I caught the bit about Valas levitating (and at this late date, I honestly don't remember), I must not have thought it was a problem. I must have figured, drow need a magic doodad to levitate? Fine. Valas has got one in his pocket.But apparently the other writers on the series decided that he didn't, and therefore, he doesn't levitate. Fair enough. I did so little with Valas in the first book that I feel he really belongs much more to the writers who did so much more to develop him. But if there's a glitch, it is too bad we didn't get it fixed. Although I do think that with six writers working, most of them composing their books without the benefit of a final draft of the previous volume to refer to, we did a pretty good job of minimizing continuity errors.

You the authors of WOTSQ wrote the books at a torrid pace and I understand that you didn't have the complete how too manual nor another WOTSQ book to base Valas on. Remarkably all the books so far have been of a high quality with only a few blips on the radar.

Anyhow in regards to Valas I wouldn't be surprised if he had a levitation gadget from one of his many kills stashed away in his piwwaffid! Hopeing he has one and makes use of it after he knifes Jeggred, alas that is only supposition.

Thank you kindly for your reply, I shall try to keep up to date with your work. Deep round quirky characters are a commodity which you consistenly deliver!

I recently picked up a copy of your book the Rage. As I began reading my heart began to sink as I was introduced to one odd and fanatastic character after another. I dunno, maybe my spirit is Sembian or Hillsfarian or something, but I like flesh and blood humans ... and here I was reading a book with a halfling, a half-golem, an artic dwarf, a weredragon, and a winged elf. Nevertheless, the prologue (and my 10 dollars Canadian) convinced me to read on, and when all was said and done I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did I find your book to be a easy read, with an inviting use of words, but I actually got to like some of those not-humans, even Dorn.

I suppose one of the reasons I enjoyed the story so much is because it parallels my own campaign in which it has been revealed that Tiamat is the mother of Sammaster, who was born to prophecize a return to the Time of Dragons with Tiamat as the ultimate sovereign. Naturally, Sammaster is back in my alternate world as well, where he has taken over the Darkhold and is currently showing Cormyr and Sunrise Vale whose boss.

Anyway, I do have one criticism ... I'm not sure how constructive but ...

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Rhetorically, WHY are elves responsible for the Rage?!?!?!? I tell you, I very much look forward to reading your next books in this series, but I just don't get it. I don't get the logic of it ... you know, that maybe a few will commit infanticide or suicide in their insanity, but lets forget about the veritable flocks that will rage across the face of the world of elf and man and lay it waste?!?!? I don't get it ....

With that said however, I will say once again that I can't wait for your the book in the series. Nice work!!!

"Ill tempered the wretch, who laughs at everyone. He cannot recognize, as he should, that he is not without faults." the High One, Poetic Edda

Hi, Beowulf. Glad you enjoyed the book. I'll respond to your question after a

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Why did the ancient elven spellcasters create the Rage? Well, at the time they lived, dragons were the unquestioned lords of FaerŻn, ruling kingdoms, commanding great armies of vassals, etc. The trilogy postulates that the only strategy the elves could come up with to break the dragons' iron grip on their world was to infect them with insanity. We can assume they did it knowing full well that in the short term, a lot of innocents might suffer when the wyrms went on the rampage, but they thought that ultimately, it would be worth it.I guess you either buy into my reasoning on the subject, or you don't. Obviously, it made sense to me (and to the folks at WotC who had to sign off on the idea for the trilogy.)

Dargoth: In the book, it's Nexus who comes up with the spell in question. The implication is that he devised it himself. But if you prefer to imagine that he's really just using a spell a certain other important personage invented, or that he turned to said personage for help in creating the magic, there's nothing in the text that actually says you're wrong.Everybody: Hope to see a bunch of you at GenCon later this week!

Dargoth: In the book, it's Nexus who comes up with the spell in question. The implication is that he devised it himself. But if you prefer to imagine that he's really just using a spell a certain other important personage invented, or that he turned to said personage for help in creating the magic, there's nothing in the text that actually says you're wrong.Everybody: Hope to see a bunch of you at GenCon later this week!

Or Given that circumstances of the conclusion of ED, Nexus may well BE "the certain important person"

Dargoth: In the book, it's Nexus who comes up with the spell in question. The implication is that he devised it himself. But if you prefer to imagine that he's really just using a spell a certain other important personage invented, or that he turned to said personage for help in creating the magic, there's nothing in the text that actually says you're wrong.Everybody: Hope to see a bunch of you at GenCon later this week!

Or Given that circumstances of the conclusion of ED, Nexus may well BE "the certain important person"

I'll have to check when I get home, but I'm pretty certain that Nexus was mentioned in the first Draconomicon, the FR one. Though no date is given in that one, it is one of the first 2E products -- before even the Horde invasion, which featured the important person of whom you speak.

Hey, Richard, I just found this thread. I read the Rage soon after it came out and thoroughly enjoyed it. That in itself is somewhat unusual, as I have a hard time getting into Realms fiction these days. However, your weird cast of characters, draconic supporting cast, and mystery-quest plot to save the world is wonderful. I'm looking forward to the Rite.

Also, for what its worth, I'm down with your reasoning on why the elves decided to "curse" dragons with the Rage. I know that many readers (especially hardcore gamers, who live or die on a weekly basis depending on their tactical decision-making) dislike explanations like this, but I think it adds an important sense of realism. Ultimately, the way I look at it, the elves may not have had a very good reason, and may have made a horrible mistake. But they were desperate and they needed to do something, so they did the best they could. Sort of like real life--where stupid, sub-optimal decisions abound, from interpersonal relationships to international politics.

Now, I know that this topic was broached previously, but I too am trying to think of the best way to represent the Rage in terms of game mechanics. Over at the WotC boards, some of us are discussing the viability of applying the barbarian's rage ability to dragons during the year. I respect your stance that story elements take precedence over game mechanics (and agree with it, as far as novels go). However, I was wondering if you had any opinion on this topic.

Fourthmensch: It's good to hear from you. I'm very glad you enjoyed the book.Because the Rage is a many-splendored thing, manifesting a bit differently in different dragons, I honestly don't know how to represent it in game mechanics. Barbarian-style rage may be a good start. In all honesty, although I've been gaming for a long time, I'm not a hardcore scholar of rule systems, and it's likely that people who have thought long and deepy about the rules are much better equipped than I am to address this particular subject.

Fourthmensch: It's good to hear from you. I'm very glad you enjoyed the book.Because the Rage is a many-splendored thing, manifesting a bit differently in different dragons, I honestly don't know how to represent it in game mechanics. Barbarian-style rage may be a good start. In all honesty, although I've been gaming for a long time, I'm not a hardcore scholar of rule systems, and it's likely that people who have thought long and deepy about the rules are much better equipped than I am to address this particular subject.

Ah, you are a wily one, Richard, to reply with such grace and polite evasion.

No worries, though--I'm sure we'll figure something out.

Good to hear from you as well; hope that the muses are begin kind to you.

Hi, Richard. I just wanted to make a quick post and let you know that I am REALLY enjoying The Rage.

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I'm only halfway through, but at this point I'm loving this book. The party of adventurers slaying dragon after dragon... classic! I haven't seen battles like that since the Chronicles books. And the company of heroes themselves, very nice. What a great team. Another classic, with the brute, the little trickster, the sound cleric, and the surly dwarf. I can't help but remember feeling this way when I first met the Company of the Bright Spear.

There's that, and then there are the dragon scenes, which are also amazing. Why can't we have more of this in the FR library? And the connection to Sammaster and the Cult? What more could there be? An avarial sorcerer/fighter (??) who wings around the city like a super hero.

Thank you for this book, Mr. Byers.

"That's right, hurl back views that force ye to think by name-calling - 'tis the grand old tradition, let it not down! Anything to keep from having to think, or - Mystra forfend - change thy own views!"

Narnra glowered at her father. "Just how am I to learn how to think? By being taught by you?"

"Some folk in the Realms would give their lives for the chance to learn at my feet," Elminster said mildly. "Several already have."

I don't know if this is poor etiquette, but I was wondering if you might be able to provide a general level breakdown of Dorn, Raryn, Taegan, (or whoever else) and the general level of the Queen's paladins? I'm insanely curious.

The group is definitely up there in levels. I'm guessing Dorn's a fighter 10-14, Raryn's about a ranger 10, and Pavel and Will seem to be lower, perhaps 8 levels each. I can't even begin to guess Taegan (some combination of fighter, wizard, and bladesinger, roughly 13 HD?), and I suspect the paladins are at least 10th level.

"That's right, hurl back views that force ye to think by name-calling - 'tis the grand old tradition, let it not down! Anything to keep from having to think, or - Mystra forfend - change thy own views!"

Narnra glowered at her father. "Just how am I to learn how to think? By being taught by you?"

"Some folk in the Realms would give their lives for the chance to learn at my feet," Elminster said mildly. "Several already have."

Crust, I wish I could oblige you in full, but I don't make a habit of statting out my fictional characters. I don't find it to be useful, so I don't bother.However, you can find complete D&D writeups for Dorn and Kara in a forthcoming issue of Dragon (#326, I believe), along with a short story about Pavel's early days. Later on, they're probably going to run one more little article with writeups for Taegan and Brimstone.I can tell you Pavel's one level lower than he would have to be to do 5th level spells. In addition to being a cleric, he may well have levels in sage. Will's a highly accomplished rogue and able warsling sniper. Raryn is a highly accomplished ranger, and Taegan's an accomplished bladesinger able to work 4th level spells of that discipline. His magical abilities apart from bladesong are minimal. The game rules will probably mandate that I give him one level of basic wizard when I write him up, but in my personal conception of him, he doesn't even have that, and you won't see him use anything but bladesong in the trilogy (except for one very weird and special spell which sort of exists outside the standard magic system.) He's the specific kind of bladesinger defined in Races of FaerŻn.You're right, the Lords of Impiltur are high-level paladins.Hope some of this satisifies your curiosity at least to a degree.

Thanks a lot. That's more information than I expected. I look forward to those Dragon magazines. Thanks again.

"That's right, hurl back views that force ye to think by name-calling - 'tis the grand old tradition, let it not down! Anything to keep from having to think, or - Mystra forfend - change thy own views!"

Narnra glowered at her father. "Just how am I to learn how to think? By being taught by you?"

"Some folk in the Realms would give their lives for the chance to learn at my feet," Elminster said mildly. "Several already have."

This question is a little OT, but Iím curious how you yourself would rate your work on the Scarred Lands: Dead God Trilogy as compared to your other works? Also, how do you feel about the Scarred Lands world being canceled (itís not official, but thatís the word around the White-Wolf camp)? Were you a little disappointed when the books went largely unnoticed?

My personal opinion is that you did a good job of capturing the SL world in the novels, and I found Vladawen to be an intriguing lead character. I felt the 2nd and 3rd books were slightly better than the first, and that might be the possible reason why sales were low. Anyway, itís a shame you canít do more SL stuff, or any writer for that matter. It's one of my favorite settings.

wwwwwww: Glad you enjoyed the Scarred Lands books.How would I rate them against the rest of my work? Well, really, I'm just not inclined to make those kinds of comparisons. I'll simply say I enjoyed writing them and am pleased with the way they came out.How do I feel about the demise of the SL setting? This is the first I'd heard of it. If it's so, I think it's rather a pity to see an interesting fantasy universe bite the dust. It doesn't have any crushing implications for me professionally, though, since I wasn't under contract to do any more SL stuff anyway.Was I disappointed the SL trilogy didn't meet with a more enthusiastic reception? Of course. You always hope that whatever you produce will be a hit. But over the years, I've published lots of stuff that never garnered a word of feedback from anybody. Most writers have plenty of opportunity to get used to that kind of disappointment. I've heard good things from a number of readers concerning my SL work, so at least I know somebody read and enjoyed it.

quote:Originally posted by wwwwwwwMy personal opinion is that you did a good job of capturing the SL world in the novels, and I found Vladawen to be an intriguing lead character. I felt the 2nd and 3rd books were slightly better than the first, and that might be the possible reason why sales were low. Anyway, itís a shame you canít do more SL stuff, or any writer for that matter. It's one of my favorite settings.

WWWWWW, where did you hear that Scarred Lands was being canceled?

And to Mr. Byer's, I say again, I enjoyed your Scarred Lands novels. :) Yes it's been awhile since I said so and the last time was on the WOTC novel boards.

For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet and excite you... Books are full of the things that you don't get in real life - wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. - Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird